On Saturday, December 12th, the 195 parties to the COP21 in Paris agreed to a historic agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from both developed and developing nations. The Paris Agreement aims to keep global temperatures to "well below 2 °C above preindustrial levels."

The agreement is an ambitious accomplishment, more than nine years in the making. However, many climate change activists are claiming it does not go far enough to prevent significant harms from climate change. For example, due to pressure from the United States, the agreement does not say that developed nations "shall" commit to reducing GHG emissions. Instead, the agreement states that developed nations "should" commit to reducing GHG emissions. In addition, the agreement discusses the need for $100 billion a year from developed nations to help developing nations mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts. However, in the final agreement, the $100 billion figure is only mentioned in the non-binding preamble. Many of these changes were pushed by the United States in an attempt to craft an agreement that will not need to be approved by the republican-lead Congress.

President Obama commented after the Paris Agreement was finalized, stating that “[t]his agreement sends a powerful signal that the world is fully committed to a low-carbon future. We’ve shown that the world has both the will and the ability to take on this challenge.” On the other side of the political spectrum, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that President Obama was "making promises he can't keep" and that the agreement was "subject to being shredded in 13 months."